My new book ‘The Botty Rules – success secrets for business in the 21st Century’ is published on 1st February.
It tells the story of my entrepreneurial career and of the five separate million pound + businesses that I’ve built over the last five years. Interwoven within the story are The Botty Rules – the simple but powerful lessons that I’ve learned along the way, sometimes painfully, but which collectively are a complete blueprint for success for any business owner or entrepreneur.
Botty Rule No. 12 in the book is:
“The first thing that super successful business owners do every morning is the most important, most critical thing for the success for their business… it’s marketing”.
I learnt this rule from a very wise man called Martin Howey. Not long after I’d set up at N5, I was talking with Martin and he asked me what was the most important thing that I had to achieve if my business was going to be successful? This is one of those awkward questions and I waffled around for a few minutes before settling on “Getting new customers and keeping the ones I’ve got”.
Martin agreed with me. He explained that I was absolutely right that as long as I was getting a regular flow of new customers and keeping the ones that I already had, then everything else in my business could and would be taken care of – but without that regular flow of customers, I didn’t have a business at all. He went on to explain to me how getting and keeping customers is all about marketing.
He then paused and asked what I’d done first thing that morning when I arrived in the office. In common with many people, I suspect, my answer was that I’d check my email, checked the voice mails, briefed the staff, made a couple of phone calls and started doing some work.
“That’s interesting …” he said, “… when are you going to do the marketing today?”
“I hadn’t planned on doing any marketing today” I replied.
“But you said that marketing is the most important thing for the success of your business so why would you not only not do it first thing in the morning but not plan to do anything at all today?” Martin asked me, surprised.
It was a very salutary lesson and one that I learned and implemented immediately. From that day on I’ve established a regular routine. My working day typically begins around 7.30 a.m., I’m often the first into the office and when I arrive I shut my door and I hang up the little sign that I have that says “Do not disturb unless building is on fire” (my staff know that I’m serious about this. No one ever interrupts my morning session when that sign is on the door).
The phone is off the hook, my email isn’t turned on and I spend usually at least 90 minutes, sometimes as much as two hours, doing marketing for my business.
This is probably the most productive habit I have ever developed. It has been worth literally millions of pounds to me.
You see, when I emerge from my office, usually around 9.15 / 9.30 to confront the rigours of the day, it doesn’t really matter what happens because I’ve done the marketing for the day. (And by the way, you can get a lot of marketing done in 90 minutes!) This has ensured that our business has kept on the front foot, that we’ve always had very strong growth curves and that our retention rates are also extremely healthy.
Like I said, it’s a habit and it’s one that many other super successful business owners have implemented as well. I know, because they’ve told me. I commend it to you, especially if marketing is not what you’re good at. If you’re like most business owners, then the marketing is difficult, it’s a chore, it’s not your normal space. If that’s you then you’re at even greater risk of not getting the marketing done UNLESS YOU DISCIPLINE YOURSELF TO GET IT DONE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.
So, what did you do first thing this morning? If it wasn’t marketing make sure you make tomorrow morning the first day of practising this habit on a daily basis!
You can order ‘The Botty Rules at all good book stores or via Amazon.
Kindle Edition also available here.
You can also follow @bottyrules on Twitter and support us as we publish the whole book tweet by tweet! This is a genuine world first so spread the word!
